Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2003
224 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Weaving together loss and anxiety with fantastic elements and literary sleight-of-hand, Kevin Brockmeier’s richly imagined Things That Fall from the Sky views the nagging realities of the world through a hopeful lens.
In the deftly told “These Hands,” a man named Lewis recounts his time babysitting a young girl and his inconsolable sense of loss after she is wrenched away. In “Apples,” a boy comes to terms with the complex world of adults, his first pangs of love, and the bizarre death of his Bible coach. “The Jesus Stories” examines a people trying to accelerate the Second Coming by telling the story of Christ in every possible way. And in the O. Henry Award winning “The Ceiling,” a man’s marriage begins to disintegrate after the sky starts slowly descending.
Achingly beautiful and deceptively simple, Things That Fall from the Sky defies gravity as one of the most original story collections seen in recent years.
First published in hardcover by Pantheon in July 2002
"Brockmeier's hallmark is the fineness of his prose, and in the tender sweep of his best stories he proves himself a formidable young writer." - Publishers Weekly
"Heartbreaking and hopeful, this outstanding collection offers many pleasures." - Booklist
"Delightful, sad and often magical.... Brockmeier's small, carefully made worlds are like Steven Millhauser's; they are definitely fantastic and miraculously, utterly human." - The New York Times Book Review
"With so much madness abroad in the world, Brockmeier provides welcome magic. Without lapsing into the simplistic or the sentimental, the stories evoke a human desire to recall that childhood realm of fairy tale..." - Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
"[A] generous collection....Brockmeier shows us a little bit of hope, a little light to see by, a plan for the future." - Chicago Tribune
This information about Things that Fall from the Sky was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Ben Krain
In addition to his most recent work, A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, Kevin Brockmeier is the author of the novels The Illumination, The Brief History of the Dead, and The Truth About Celia; the story collections Things That Fall from the Sky and The View from the Seventh Layer; and the children's novels City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. He has published his stories in such venues as The New Yorker, The Georgia Review, McSweeney's, Zoetrope, Tin House, The Oxford American, The Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and New Stories from the South. He has recieved the Borders Original Voices Award, three O. Henry Awards (one, a first prize), the PEN USA Award, a ...
Name Pronunciation
Kevin Brockmeier: BROCK-my-er
Digging Stars
by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Blending drama and satire, Digging Stars probes the emotional universes of love, friendship, family, and nationhood.
The Wren, the Wren
by Anne Enright
An incandescent novel about the inheritance of trauma, wonder, and love across three generations of women.
25 Copies to Give Away!
A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. But can Langley trust the Russian at its center?
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
